The present invention relates to optical fiber products and, more particularly, to optical fiber cross-connect modules and methods for using the same.
Optical fiber networks are increasingly being installed to support high-speed voice and data communications. Increasingly, the optical fiber coupling is being expanded out from the central office of the communication service provider companies, such as Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) to the subscriber locations, such as homes or businesses, where conventional copper wiring was traditionally used. Such alternate methods of providing bandwidth to subscriber locations are often referred to in the telecoms industry as Fiber to the Home (FTTH), Fiber to the Business (FTTB) and the like (FTTx).
When providing services using an optical fiber network, it is generally necessary to add and drop subscribers over time. As a result, a variety of methods are provided for interconnecting subscriber locations with a central office connecting facility operated by an optical network provider. To improve the utilization of communication circuits within such a central office facility, interconnection enclosures, such as a centralized splitter cabinet (CSC) and/or centralized splitter cross-connect (CSX), may be provided as part of the outside plant (OSP) infrastructure of the optical fiber network. Doing so may allow some of the burden of establishing and changing connections on the network to be shifted away from the central office and facilitate incremental growth of an installed network as new subscribers are added.
A centralized splitter cabinet (CSC) is typically a passive optical enclosure that provides random termination of optical splitters suitable for use in an OSP environment. A CSC may be pedestal or pole mounted in the field. A CSC may provide a flexibility point for termination of distribution cable as well as enclosing a splitter array. This flexibility in interconnections of the downstream fiber network may facilitate optimization of the use of electronic equipment in the central office by, for example, avoiding the need to dedicate circuits in the central office to each subscriber location when many such locations may not be active.
A field service technician may be sent to the CSC to modify the selection of a subscriber location coupled through a splitter to a particular fiber from the central office by connecting and disconnecting various cables found in the CSC. For example, it is known to provide connectorized pigtail cables associated with each subscriber location serviced by a CSC in the CSC. A technician can then select the splitter pigtail for a designated subscriber location, for example, based on a label attached to the pigtail, and insert the selected cable in a connection point of a splitter.
A field service technician may also need to make cross-connections in the CSC. Cross-connecting can be performed with individual varied length patchcords, which route directly from feeder fiber connector ports to distribution fiber connector ports within the cabinet. Typically, these varied length patchcords are routed in an unorganized fashion and may conflict with the recommended splitter module pigtail routing paths in the cabinet. Other methods of cross-connecting within a centralized splitter cabinet generally require the use of a fixed position routing “drum” in-place of, but not along side of, splitter modules.